6. Receptacle united with the fruit for the greatest part. Fruit with 2-4 indehiscent stones. Seeds not grooved. Disc thick. Spines in the axils of the leaves.--Species 3. Tropical and South Africa. (_Adolia_ Lam.) =Scutia= Brongn. Receptacle free from the fruit for the greatest part. Disc thin, rarely thick, but then spines, as usually, wanting. 7 7 Fruit with 1 two-celled stone. Disc thick. Style 2-cleft. Flowers 5-merous. Leaves alternate.--Species 1. East Africa. The fruits are edible. =Berchemia= Neck. Fruit with 2-4 stones. Disc thin. 8 8. Fruit with a red skin and a woody stone separating into 3 elastically dehiscing portions. Seed-coat crustaceous, shining. Flowers 5-merous. Leaves alternate.--Species 1. Madagascar. =Macrorhamnus= Baill. Fruit with 2-4 leathery or thin-woody, scarcely or not dehiscing stones. Seed-coat thin.--Species 17. North, East, and South Africa. They yield timber, dyes, a substitute for hop, fish-poison, and medicaments. “Buckthorn.” =Rhamnus= L. 9. (1.) Ovary half-inferior. 10 Ovary inferior. 15 10. Style simple; stigma 3-lobed. Leaves penninerved, serrate or crenate. 11 Style 2-4-cleft. 12 11. Ovary incompletely 2-3-celled, 1-2-ovuled. Fruit drupaceous, 1-celled, 1-2-seeded. Trees. Leaves opposite or nearly so. Flowers in axillary, raceme-like cymes. (See 2.) =Maesopsis= Engl. Ovary completely 3-celled, 3-ovuled. Fruit separating into 3 dehiscing mericarps, 3-seeded. Shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers in axillary and terminal cymes or panicles.--Species 1. South Africa and St. Helena. =Noltia= Reichb. 12. Leaves 3-5-nerved from the base, alternate. Fruit a drupe. Stem erect or decumbent. 13 Leaves penninerved. Fruit a nut, a schizocarp, or a capsule. 14 13. Fruit with a horizontal wing; epicarp leathery, endocarp woody. Leaves 3-nerved, serrate; stipules transformed into spines. Flowers in axillary and terminal, raceme-like cymes.--Species 1. Cultivated and naturalized in Algeria. Used medicinally and as a hedge-plant. =Paliurus= Juss. Fruit not winged; epicarp fleshy, endocarp horny, woody or leathery. (See 4.) =Zizyphus= Juss. 14. Ovary 2-celled. Style 2-cleft. Fruit with a long wing-like appendage, dry, 1-seeded, indehiscent. Climbing shrubs. Leaves alternate.--Species 3. Madagascar and neighbouring islands, West Africa. They yield fibres, tanning and dyeing materials, and medicaments. (Plate 88.) =Ventilago= Gaertn. Ovary 3-celled. Style 3-cleft or 3-parted. Fruit not winged, 3-seeded. Erect or almost erect, hairy shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite. Flowers in lateral inflorescences.--Species 6. Tropics. =Lasiodiscus= Hook. fil.